“DIY HRT,” like many alphabet-mafia acronyms, seems like the result of a cat running across a keyboard. However, it stands for “do-it-yourself hormone replacement therapy” - essentially, unsupervised use of cross-sex hormones.
It seems like a niche community, but it isn’t. There are several websites selling cross-sex hormones online, and there is even a subreddit dedicated to discussion of it. And while these spaces claim to be only for adults, they’re lying.
One site, DIY HRT Directory, shows a screen asking visitors to the site to confirm their age…by clicking a button that says “I AM 18 OR OLDER.” Clicking the button gives users access to dozens of links selling specific hormones, which the site encourages users to pay for via Bitcoin.
Because that’s not sketchy at all, right?
For testosterone, which is a controlled substance, the site directs users to Roidbazaar, a site used chiefly by bodybuilders, which allows users to purchase the hormones without any age verification whatsoever.
In theory, a gender-confused 12-year-old could find the DIY HRT Directory, buy testosterone off of a sketchy steroid site, and take it without her parents suspecting a thing. And this isn’t a glitch in the system - this is by design.
On the r/TransDIY subreddit, a user asked fellow Redditors their thoughts on minors using cross-sex hormones unsupervised. Several comments contained some variation of the word “based” - Gen Z slang for "good."
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Other comments reeked of emotional blackmail, claiming that if minors are not allowed to drug themself with substances that they ordered online, they’ll kill themselves. A comment with 15 upvotes called not allowing minors to do so “forced puberty.” (Side note: I found a gray hair the other day. Should I order sketchy hair dye online to stop my forced aging?)
There were also comments from people who had themselves taken this route as minors. One trans-identified woman claimed to have started ordering hormones after doing her “research” on 4Chan (obviously a reputable source, right?) and said that as an adult, she now wants to help minors access hormones.
How somebody can be so unaware of perpetuating the cycle of abuse is beyond me.
“If they're being safe then I don't see an issue. I did DIY for a few months when I was 15 before my parents threw away all my stuff and stopped trusting me with money,” one user wrote. Another user responded by saying that “'being safe' is often a dogwhistle for denying HRT or severely underdosing trans people against their will.”
The two comments that were downright critical of the practice were downvoted severely, with one even being deleted by the moderators.
One response to a critical comment is particularly alarming. One user said that “if you truly believe in individuality [...] you’ll let people have autonomy regardless of their age.”
“[I'm] sick of people pretending the prefrontal cortex is the reason we don't give minors the same or similar freedoms as adults,” the user went on to say.
I think that hard drive checks are in order.
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— MRCTV (@mrctv) March 16, 2024